Last month, Digital Ally, a Kansas-based company known for its police body and dashboard cameras, announced that it had secured a patent for a new conducted electrical weapon. This marked the first time in more than a decade that a serious player in the police business showed interest in building a newer and better taser.

Ever since 2003, when one of the two companies making tasers bought out the other, there has effectively been a taser monopoly. If you’ve ever seen a police officer carrying a taser, that taser was almost certainly manufactured by the publicly traded company formerly known as Taser International, now named Axon Enterprise, Inc.

Axon’s version of the taser isn’t perfect. It uses copper wires to transmit an electrical…

Chinese Google rival Baidu is the latest corporation to make its foray into blockchain tech – and its first undertaking is a doggy-centered copycat of smash-hit game CryptoKitties. But unlike its kitty counterpart, CryptoDogs will be based not on Ethereum, but a new blockchain alternative known as Achain. Similarly to CryptoKitties, Baidu’s knock-off lets you purchase, trade, and breed various digital doggies, whose defining characteristics are then recorded on a blockchain. There are currently more than 20 pages with uniquely generated CryptoDogs on the game’s marketplace – ranging from thousands of dollars to measly cents. All doggies are valued in Achain’s ACT…